Chad,
I liked what you described as the pastor's quirkiness. He was engaging and I didn't think any of his enthusiasm was contrived. Apologizing for saying 'separated shoulder' seemed a little over the top though. The repetiion of the cooking and music anaologies was a bit odd. I don't agree with the argument the analogies were meant to support, but I immediately understood the anaologies. I'll have to assume that some in the audience were giving him the classic student 'I don't get it blank stare'. I got it, so I'll blame the students.
The passages from Revelation, the Gospels, and Daniel are used to support three arguments:
1. God is omnipotent
2. All positive outcomes can only be attributed to God.
3. God cannot be questioned.
These are nicely packaged in God's order of things, his divine plan which we must operate within to be able to come out of the shaddows. Even though we do the work, God is to be given credit.
I have a suspicion that part 2 of the video will be an effort to describe why bad things happen, i.e. address the problem of evil. I couldn't find part 2, but found this article on the New Church website:
http://www.newchurch.org/connection/issu...ature.html
Here's what I took from the article:
1. God doesn't punish sin, people are punished BY the sin.
2. God doesn't cause bad things to happen, but allows them to occur.
3. God causes good to come from bad.
I'm sure this won't surprise you, but I found the video and article to be unsatisfying regarding the Epicurean paradox. They simply amount to a more considered 'mysterious ways' argument.
I liked what you described as the pastor's quirkiness. He was engaging and I didn't think any of his enthusiasm was contrived. Apologizing for saying 'separated shoulder' seemed a little over the top though. The repetiion of the cooking and music anaologies was a bit odd. I don't agree with the argument the analogies were meant to support, but I immediately understood the anaologies. I'll have to assume that some in the audience were giving him the classic student 'I don't get it blank stare'. I got it, so I'll blame the students.
The passages from Revelation, the Gospels, and Daniel are used to support three arguments:
1. God is omnipotent
2. All positive outcomes can only be attributed to God.
3. God cannot be questioned.
These are nicely packaged in God's order of things, his divine plan which we must operate within to be able to come out of the shaddows. Even though we do the work, God is to be given credit.
I have a suspicion that part 2 of the video will be an effort to describe why bad things happen, i.e. address the problem of evil. I couldn't find part 2, but found this article on the New Church website:
http://www.newchurch.org/connection/issu...ature.html
Here's what I took from the article:
1. God doesn't punish sin, people are punished BY the sin.
2. God doesn't cause bad things to happen, but allows them to occur.
3. God causes good to come from bad.
I'm sure this won't surprise you, but I found the video and article to be unsatisfying regarding the Epicurean paradox. They simply amount to a more considered 'mysterious ways' argument.
